Shaping Shadow Series
Shaping Shadow Series is based around the four main books of the Series of the same name. It also includes an Anthology of stories covering different characters, view points of a event or even brand new events that are not seen in the original four books. The author is Mindrop. The Main Books update every Tuesday. WARNING! Some information below may be considered a spoiler if you have not read that far in the Books or Anthology. The best has been done to reduce that possibility, but some things can not be avoided. Main Synopsis The Enclave survives because of it's cloud farmers. Shadow Flare was raised on one of the oldest and largest cloud farms known as a homestead, way in the north at the edge of the Enclave. Shadow Flare has the heart of a farmer, but not the size. Shadow Flare stopped growing at a young age and looks like a small mare. His voice isn't much better. Still, he does his best, no matter what, to do his duty and feed the Pegasus Race. The Enclave is running low on raw materials and the wasteland below has more than enough. Shadow Flare found it his duty, his fate, to not only join, but to help the Enclave begin to first really reach below the clouds. Their goal is to search out below and reconnect where possible. The Enclave needs answers and it needs them quickly. Social upheaval is beginning to rise from concerns over food and other resources. Their choices below will directly influence how the Enclave tackles those problems. What they do below will impact the wasteland forever, good or bad. What he does, shapes the wasteland for Little Pip and beyond. But hardship and struggle isn't just below in the wasteland, but above as well. A broken heart, and a lost love, is universal. Books }} Major Characters A comprehensive list of characters can be found here. Shadow Flare Shadow Flare is a small pegasus from the edge of the Enclave. He grew up a cloud farmer and is as tough as the northern mountains near his family's farm. Cardinal Spitfire Cardinal Spitfire is a hot shot speed demon who wants one thing, to become a Wonderbolt. Golden Dawn Golden Dawn grew up next to the textile mills in Twin Clouds. After being unable to get a substantial job, she turns to the Enclave Military for stability and to escape the social stigma she endures from her community. Deke An almost arrogant pegasus who can back up what he says and isn't afraid to let anypegasus what he can do. He dreams of flying a Cloudship Raptor. Olive Pit The child of olive farmers, he joined the Enclave to be a combat medic. Notable Locations For a full list of locations visit Shaping Shadow Locations. El Nino El Nino is a village in the west of the Northern Farming District. It is one of two cities in the district and is peaceful and quite. None of the buildings are above three stories. It's a well structured village. After harvest, the nearby farms come in to sell and trade products, acquire the items they need for the upcoming year and other business. There is no Enclave presence in the city, outside the recruiter. It is a few hours flight south of Shadow Flare's home and the city they trade in and get supplies from. Fort Wind Fort Wind is the training base for all Enclave soldiers. Basic Training is conducted there. Almost all of the personnel there are focused on the training of the recruits. The non training units are three Wonderbolt Units, who are there to perform the aerial show put on at all graduations. They will assist in training the recruits. There are several Aerial Combat Units who are stationed at the Fort at all times. All Aerial Combat Units are primarily based out of Fort Wind. Most are sent out to secondary posts at other bases. Many of them assist in Basic Training for various tasks. Aerial Combat School is conducted at Fort Wind to train new ACUs. Fort Griffin's Gate The Black Ops base. If it is secret, it happens at Fort Griffin's Gate. The name and location is a well guarded secret. The Fort is located in the North East corner of the Enclave, and is built almost entirely on the mountains, not clouds. Fort Griffin's Gate is the only Enclave military establishment to be completely on solid ground, It is a remote location, taking days to travel to from the closest city. No farms are nearby. The Base was built on the old battleground between the Griffin Army and the fledgling Enclave Military soon after the sky was sealed up. The Enclave won at great cost and was able to sack the Griffin Kingdom for resources. The Fort has a gate that opens up below the clouds to deploy troops from, if necessary. It is one of the few places with a built in gate for going below. All Wonderbolts have their primary post at Fort Griffin's Gate. All of the Wonderbolt training happens here. Wonderbolt testing is conducted elsewhere, but any training happens at the Fort. Units will head back to They have a small but well trained support staff at the Fort. The support staff are not Wonderbolts, but are still considered to be in the Wonderbolt family because of their devotion. New transfers do not happen often and most soldiers spend five or more years at the base. Stable 68 Baltimare Kifopiga Kifopiga (Ki-foe-pee-gha) Is a Zebra Fortress. The name means Death Fortress with the action of Trap. In other words, Trapping Death Fortress. It is south of the Macintosh Hills where a Megaspall chamber was hidden. It was the focus of one of the last battles of the war. The Megaspells were launched as it was happening. It did not cause the launch of the spells. New Creatures Quarry Geckos Wasteland Hydra Pre-war, Hydras were a four headed beast found in Froggy Bottom Bogg. The North Westrn part of Hayseed Swamp is home to these creatures. The swamp has gathered the toxins and radiation over the years, mutating these creatures to have six heads, not four. New Factions Super Ponies Super Ponies come from Stable 50 in Baltimare. They rule most of Baltimare and scare off the rest. They are transformed by a pre-war Stable-tec experiment in an attempt to make better a better soldier. They do not hesitate to eat ponies. Dahlia’s Dragoons An elite team of Steel Rangers that is lead by Dahlia, this team of Crusaders are based out of the Fillydelphia Contingent. They are a hunting unit. Their primary job is to seek out and kill enemies of the Ministry of Wartime Technology. They also patrol outside the general territory of the Fillydelphia Contingent, and often visiting the Manehattan Contingent and Trottingham Contingent. Dahlia is considered a rogue and often causes problems with others outside the Steel Rangers. Her cunning and drive does a lot of good for the Steel Rangers, especially when she hunts down and kills high value targets. Dahlia’s Dragoons are characterized by they black cloaks that drape over their left shoulders. The corner of the draped cloak, by their left front hoof, has the Ministry of Wartime Technology symbol, in bright orange. {{Quote|“It was probably Dahlia’s Dragoons. That crusader can be more trouble than she is worth.” “We need to report them to the Elder. They can’t be scaring ponies and need to look and act like proper Steel Rangers while on patrol. It is counter productive.”|Chapter 37 Children of Balefire The Children of Balefire worship the Balefire Radiation that exists after the spells. They reside in the Hollow Shades where they have built themselves a village around a pool. The Vale is the name they have given the place. They were founded by Soothsayer, and are lead by the High confessor. The High Confessor has always been a mare. Their husband serves as the Father, who tends the little ones and teaches them their ways. Special Enclave Groups Aerial Combat Battalion The Aerial Combat Battalion (ACB) Is led by General Shielded Vengeance. The Aerial Combat Battalion covers the aerial combat type units. The Aerial Combat Units, Scout Command, Reconnaissance Counsel and the Wonderbolts. Typically the Aerial Combat Battalion's general is a Wonderbolt. Aerial Combat Unit Aerial Combat Units, also known as ACUs, work with special air/ground tactics. There are limited spots to join and Aerial Combat School, ACS, is done on a need to basis. Upon completing ACS, the soldier receives Silver Wings for their uniform, to replace their previous device. The Silver Wings are the second most prestigious uniform device, the first being Wonderbolts. All ACUs are a 4-6 pony Unit with a number designation. They try and keep them at full strength, but ACS timings do mean that members retire. All ACUs are primarily based out of Fort Wind, at the Squad Barracks. They retain a small Unit, barracks style, with 6 single beds. Almost all ACUs have a secondary post where they spend their time and have private rooms. Those Units return for training and other recalls when needed. The philosophy behind ACUs is not just aerial combat, but dropping in and setting up advanced lines for light troopers and other soldiers to form up. Dropping in to take out a building, group, capture supplies, perform recon and other duties that require small teams or several small teams to get in and out quickly. Scout Command controls the ACUs. Not all ACUs are Scouts, but all Scouts are ACUs. The ACU program is being rapidly expanded. UNIT 0 Unit 0 is the ACUs' medical team. They were reorganized to remove the medics in some of the ACUs so that they could put a 6th combat member into those Units. Unit 0 was supposed to back up ACUs by attaching one our two combat medics to outgoing Units, mission dependent, to play a normal support role. Unit 0 tends the Squad Barracks' clinic and watches over ACU training, Aerial Combat School and all five of the recruit flight decks when Basic Training Barracks are learning aerial combat techniques. Unit 0 is the forgotten Unit. It has lost it's focus because of so much downtime. Their members do not have Silver Wings and are out of shape. They are unable to perform their roles and have only 11 NCOs. There is not enough medics to function with all the ACUs if needed. The program is being rebuilt with an officer in charge. Unit 731 Little is known about 731. All that is known is she is based out of the cloudship transport, Red Dawn, rather than being based out of a military base or Thunderhead Class cloudship. 731 is rumored to do anything, nothing and even be a myth. Shadow is told by Marble Falls that she believes Unit 731 is connected to the Wonderbolts in an unknown way. Third Fleet The Third fleet is an odd assortment of half a dozen retrofitted cloudships. It has no known purpose other than to be the fleet for their odd ship types. The Battle Cruiser Red Dawn is the most well known in the Fleet. The Fleet's Flagship is the Buttercup, a corvette. Another member is the Monitor the Lord Clove and the other three are Net Layers: The Buffy, Willow and Xander. Special Training Equaggan War Weapons Equaggan War Weapons Training, EWW, is a special, classified training that is available to the select few. It is a well kept secret. The Enclave officially named the war the Equaggan war. A mix of each race's technical names, Equestrian and the Zebra's name, Quagga. The training is focused on weapons from the war on both sides, but it's predominant focus is on the foreign Zebra weapons and enchanted weapons. Technical Magical Training Technical Magical Training, TMT, is a special, classified training that is available to the select few mechanical and engineering soldiers. It is a well kept secret that focus on the advances and mix of the technology and magic that makes up many of the advances made during the war. It is an attempt to give soldiers a better understanding of those advancements. Weapons & Technology Find a full list of Shaping Shadow weapons, technology and signature pieces here. Pegasus Power Armor Variants Over the years, the Enclave has developed several variants of Pegasus power armor. The original model is designated as the Mark 1. The Mark 2 was developed about 50 years after the sealing of the clouds to increase their power armor numbers and prove they could do it without help from the Ministry of Wartime Technology. The Mark 4 was released a few years before Shaping Shadow begins. The armor was designed for specialized use and produced in lower quantities. Few consider it better than the Mark 2, although it does edge out the Mark 2 on all tests. The Mark 2 is still considered better, in part because of aesthetics. While it does not have the beauty of the Mark 2, it has a sharp, intimidating image. Pegasus power armor from the war are still being used. The power armor is almost always painted black or a dark green. Most power armor is used by heavy weapons units and other units designated to be the first in. Aerial Combat Units sometimes use power armor, but often chose medium plate armor for maneuverability. The Wonderbolts all use power armor, although the model is up to the individual. All of their armor is painted with their colors. Any power armor used by the Wonderbolts has been further fine tuned and enhanced. Most prefer the Mark 2, but the Mark 4 is gaining acceptance. No Wonderbolt would be caught dead in Mark 3 armor, even modified Mark 3. GPER - Grand Pegasus Enclave Rifle The rifle is usually called by its phonetic name, Jeeper. It is a battle rifle for a battle saddle and the first post war rifle the Enclave developed. The Alpha variant is short barreled while the Bravo variant is a longer barrel. The rifle is made to take one of two rounds. The 76-2 fires the 7.62mm round. The 55-6 fires the 5.56mm round. Novasurge Battlerifle The Novasurge Battlerifle is an improved variant on the original. It sacrifices rate of fire for an even more powerful blast. Only 7 were produced, one for each member of the Inquisitors and then the prototype model for their first officer. Star Dust *Error New Drugs The Enclave produces three medicines to counter the radiation and toxins below. Rad-Flush, RadBlock and PWTs. Rad-Flush and RadBlock are the Enclave's solutions to low supplies of Rad-Away and RadSafe. Cloudships A full list of the cloudships in the Shaping Shadow Series is found here. Red Dawn The Red Dawn is a cloudship from the war that the Enclave still uses. She is a Fairy Class troop transport that was converted to carry heavier guns, and reclassified as a Battle Cruiser. She was is not a Sky-tank, being slightly smaller and a different class. While she can hold her own, she can not match a Rapter's firepower. Since she was made during the war as a transport, she is fast. The Red Dawn is the fastest cloudship the Enclave has. There is a prestige to being the Captain of the oldest operating cloudship. The mysterious Unit 731 is based out of the Red Dawn. Buttercup The Buttercup is the flagship in the 3rd Fleet. * See Behind the scenes for naming information. * She is an experimental design and classified as a corvette. Fast and light, she has the best acceleration in the fleet, hitter her top speed four times faster than a Raptor. Her size to gun ratio is heavy. The corvette class is based on speed and maneuverability while still carrying enough firepower to stand on their own in a fight. The corvette class was supposed to become the main patrol cloudship in the Enclave, but that was dropped when the size to resources ratio was seen and canceled. They opted to use more general ships like Sky-tanks to patrol. The Buttercup could, in theory, take on a Raptor. As the smallest warship, she can out turn and evade the slower Raptors while being able to point her sizable guns at the Raptor at all times. Tracking a skilled corvette crew is extremely difficult. The Buttercup has a compliment of 85 officers and crew, but is understaffed like the other ships in the 3rd. Her bridge crew consists of four. The Lord Clove A Monitor Class cloudship, the Lord Clove is an experimental design that was never put into further production. It's philosophy was to create a ship with much more firepower than a Raptor, but retain lower resource cost. An alternative heavy gunship to the Raptor since Dragon fighting was not foreseen as an issue. The Lord Clove's guns are accurate to much longer ranges than any other cloudship. If a Raptor gets caught in her guns, it is over. Even a Thunderhead Class cloudship will take a beating if not go down by the time it can retaliate. The extra firepower brings two drawbacks. The Lord Clove is slow. Extremely slow. And because the goal was to reduce resource use, she has little armor. The Lord Clove is as smalls as she can be with the giant guns, but still has very little armor. As long as she can keep out of the range of their guns, the Lord Clove will take them down. She just needs to chug along slowly to her destination. Behind the Scenes NOTE: Since this story is ongoing and the written/edited chapters are ahead of the releases, trivia facts will be updated ahead of the releases so that nothing is missed. (I, Mindrop, love to point out the fun facts in any of my stories. And dispel any coincidences.) These are in organized in order of when they first appear in the story. Book 1 * Fort Wind is, in part, named after Retired Wonderbolt Wind Rider from Season 5, Episode 15, Rarity Investigates. * The cadences are real cadences. * Marble Falls is named for Marble Falls Texas. The Author needed a name and turned to his map. * Mareland Joint Operations Base is based on Lackland Air Force Base which is part of Joint Base San Antonio, where all branches of the U.S. Military have personnel stationed there. It is the second largest Joint military base in the U.S.. * The cloudship Red Dawn has no correlation with the movie. * The cloudship Solar is named for the USS Solar, a Buckly-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy in WW2. * Unit 731 borrows the name for the WW2 Japanese Imperial Military Unit 731. In name only. * Green Jewelry is the name of a small Jewelry store in the hometown of the Author. Book 2 * Radar Barracks pays homage to Radar from the T.V. show M.A.S.H.. * Raspberry Lemonade was named because the author was drinking Raspberry Lemonade. * Sanctuary is based on Sanctuary from Fallout 4. * Stable 68's Location is based on Vault 111's location from Fallout 4, outside and above Sanctuary. 68 is also one the author's special numbers. * Quarry Geckos pay homage to the Geckos from Fallout New Vegas. * The books Cardinal Spitfire gets in Chapter 37 are real books with minor adjustments to name and title to fit with the MLP Theme. * Baltimare is, in part, inspired by The Commonwealth from Fallout 4. * Super Ponies are based on Super Mutants from Fallout, specifically Fallout 4. * Dry Dock City is loosely based on Rivet City from Fallout 3. * The Glowing Sea is based on the Glowing Sea from Fallout 4. * Fort Strong is based on Fort Strong from Fallout 4. * Equestria Naval Academy is based on the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland, just south of Baltimore. * Ponypsco River is based on the Parapsco River which Baltimore is centered around. * Stable 50's experiment is based on Vault 81 from Fallout 4 and mixed with the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV/F.E.V.) from Fallout 4. * F. Oatbrien is ponified William F. O'Brien. The poem "Better to try and fail than never to try at all" is quoted in its entirety. * Crystal Kiss is accidentally based on Lily Bowen, a companion in Fallout New Vegas. Editing brought the correlation to my mind. * Crystal Kiss' Saffron Flower Cutie Mark has nothing to do with Saffron Masala. The Author didn't catch that character's name until watching the episode, for at least the third time. That was after the chapter was written and edited. * The SEED School of Baltimare is based on The SEED School of Maryland. * Zebra weapons were given numbers. "Type ##". These a based on the Japanese Imperial Army's Weapons. This includes the weapons numbers being assigned by the calendar it was developed. * Equestrian Military Rifle 1 is based on the 1903 Springfield. * The Applesnack Submachine Gun is designed after the Thompson 'Tommy' Submachine Gun. * The Apple Jack Rifle, or A.J.R is designed after the Browning Automatic Rifle, B.A.R.. * The RD-44 rifle is designed after the German Sturmgewehr 44 Rifle. * The Buttercup is named after the Flower-class Corvette, the HMS Buttercup. * The Lord Clove is named for the Monitor, the HMS Lord Clive. * The Net Layers are a direct reference to Buffy, Willow, and Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. * In Chapter 56, there is a reference to a few songs from the MLP Movie. Book 3 * Walter Arms pays homage to the infamous Walther Arms company. Walter Arms employees are all Season 1 or Season 2 ponies. Walter, Firecracker Burst, Long Shot, Serena, and Strike. * Vulpes is named for Vulpes Inculta from Fallout: New Vegas. He was a fallout character that many found to be charming. I left out Inculta because it is Latin for rough, uncouth, unkempt. That is not befitting a charming character. Vulpes is the scientific name for fox. The Fox is a charming name. * The Kings is named for the Fallout New Vegas faction of the same name. Originally, the gang was going to be the Frumentarii, The Wheat Gatherers, but the name didn't fit having mares waiting on hoof. The King has several ladies in waiting in Fallout: New Vegas. * Chapter 84 - Swamp Fever is not the same as Swamp Fever in Season 7, Episode 20 "A Health of Information." Swamp Fever is based on the real Equestrian illness of the same name and/or malaria. Book 4 Anthology * I am not even going to attempt to hide the outright use of Sassy Saddle's name for the boutique. I was uninspired when I needed a boutique name and took the lazy way out.